The 2023 F1 season will always be remembered for Red Bull having redefined what it means to dominate in the sport. They went on to win all but one race. Earlier in October, Red Bull entered the Qatar Grand Prix with determination to cement their world champion status. For Sergio Perez, it was more than just a race. It was an opportunity to showcase Red Bull’s prowess and to affirm his capabilities. However, little did the Mexican know that the weekend would become an unexpected crucible, testing not only his skills but also his mental toughness.

In the light of the same, the racer revealed the massive self-doubt he found himself face to face with. While he was eager to contribute to his team’s success the weekend of the Qatar showdown, the desert proved to be a test in an unprecedented manner. The “chance to get back to racing” turned into a nightmare for Sergio Perez.

Finishing a lap down on his teammate made Sergio Perez realize something was wrong

Despite Perez’s commitment, fate had a different script for the Mexican at the Losail International Circuit. The weekend unfolded with a terrible turn of events, starting with a challenging Sprint Race where he got entangled with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg. A promising weekend was quickly unraveling into a series of setbacks. Forced to commence the main race from the pit lane due to a power unit change, Perez’s hopes relied on a strong comeback on Sunday.

However, Sunday’s race only deepened Serio Perez’s troubles. The 33-year-old Mexican received three five-second time penalties for exceeding track limits. Adding salt to his wounds, he was lapped by his teammate Max Verstappen, who cruised to victory. The dream of standing on the top step of the podium ultimately turned into a weekend to forget for Sergio Perez.

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In a recent interview with Autosport, Checo opened up about the Qatar GP nightmare. “Qatar was really the worst weekend I remember in a while,” said the Mexican. “Probably my worst weekend ever in the sport. It was such a bad weekend that I really felt like, ‘I cannot be this bad, there’s something that’s going on’… I felt like we really had to take a bit of time to make sure that we understood which way we were going.”

“Obviously, we had a deficit within the car setup that we were playing around [with] weekend by weekend and we were just not able to progress through it,” Perez added.

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After suffering his worst weekend of the season, Checo decided to take matters into his own hands and went for a 3-day simulator brainstorming session back at Milton Keynes.

Checo believes the post-Qatar sim session helped him get things back on track

Adversity often serves as a catalyst for transformation. Amid self-doubt and reflection, Sergio Perez found a silver lining. The Red Bull driver embarked on a three-day brainstorming session in the Milton Keynes simulator. He wanted to unlock the potential of the tweaked Red Bull RB19 and find a setup that would extract its optimal performance.

The sim-work proved to be a turning point for Perez after all. Speaking further in the conversation with Autosport, the Mexican noted, “Once we managed to get on top of that [set-ups], we understood a lot of things that we were trying to compensate for. And that just basically meant that we were just not doing things right. I think that has been really, really good on our side. I mean, it was bad that it happened but in a way, it was really good because it really strengthened our team quite a lot.“

Checo will enter the final year of his contract with Red Bull in 2024. Will he be able to pull off another contract extension with the Milton Keynes squad? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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